


Fine, Fine, Everything's Fine

by katikat



Category: Fortysomething
Genre: Gen, Sexual Harassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-21
Updated: 2012-02-21
Packaged: 2017-10-31 13:38:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/344643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel taunted Harry Green. Harry took revenge. Follows 1x05.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fine, Fine, Everything's Fine

"Hey, Rory, you've been in there for ages now!" Daniel yelled, banging on the bathroom door.

Expecting a snarky remark, he prepared a witty response. Instead the sound of shattering glass could be heard through the closed door followed by silent cursing. Rory never cursed.

Frowning, Daniel asked, "You okay?"

"Fine! Rory called out, sounding anything but fine, then continued softly, "I'm fine, fine, just fine, everything's fine…"

Daniel's frown deepened and he opened the door, privacy be damned. He found Rory kneeling on the floor in his hideous striped pajamas, picking up shards with his bare hands. Rory barely glanced up.

"Can't you respect a closed door?" Rory asked but his reprimand lacked his usual primness.

"You know me. A closed door's like an invitation to me – especially when it belongs to a woman," Daniel said lewdly but he was still frowning. Rory seemed unusually skittish.

"Well, this one doesn't, so don't let it smack you on the ass on the way out!" Rory said pointedly, reaching out and upending his hand holding the biggest shards into the trash bin. Revealing…

"What's this?" Daniel moved forward quickly, grasping his brother by the forearm when Rory tried to pull back and tug his sleeve down. Daniel hitched the sleeve up again – there was a ring of bruises around Rory's wrist, as if someone had gripped him tightly, tight enough to leave purpling marks in the shape of fingerprints on his skin.

Rory tugged hard, trying to free himself. "It's nothing, Dan. Leave it," he said softly, looking everywhere but at his brother.

"It's not nothing," Daniel argued. "Show me your other hand." When Rory refused, Daniel said forcefully, "Show me or I swear I'll call mum in here and then you'll be explaining it to her."

Rory looked at him with wide eyes. "You wouldn't!"

"Try me!" Daniel answered bitingly. He was getting really angry. They might pull each other's leg and steal each other's girlfriends but it looked like someone really hurt his brother – and rattled him to the core.

"Fine!" Rory ground out, thrusting his other hand forward too and showing Daniel a similarly bruised wrist. "It's nothing, just an… accident. At the shelter. Happens sometimes." But he wasn't looking at Daniel and Rory had never been an accomplished liar, Estelle had instilled too much truthfulness into him.

Daniel crouched down, keeping his terrycloth bathrobe off the floor, and held his brother's hands in his over the expanse of broken glass. "Rory? Who did this?" he asked quietly.

This time, when Rory tugged, Daniel let him go. Rory pulled back, sitting down on the floor, mindful of the shards, and tucked his hands into his sleeves, holding them tightly to his chest. It seemed as if he had been poised for mockery, derision even, but Daniel's earnest question stole the wind right out of him. It seemed like he'd crumpled in on himself, his shoulders rounding.

"Let it go, Dan," Rory said softly. "I'm handling it. Everything's fine."

Daniel stared at his brother hard, noticing his paleness and the fine tremors that were running through him. "That is the fifth or sixth 'fine' in the last five minutes." When Rory turned away and pressed his lips together, he sighed. "Look, I know that you think of me as a promiscuous bastard with attachment issues but I actually do care. I think you should talk about this," he waved his hand at Rory's wrists, "whatever it is with someone, it's eating you up. I show a remarkable lack of respect for our parents, but Paul and Estelle would…"

"It was Harry Green," Rory said quietly, interrupting his brother.

"Green? Your manager at the shelter?" Daniel asked incredulously. The man reminded him of a weasel, but he thought him harmless, big mouth but very little force behind it.

Rory nodded. "After what you said at the meeting yesterday, after you revealed what he was using our funds for…" Rory took a shuddering breath, closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall. "Let's just say that he relished the opportunity to show your brother – who happens to work under him – his place."

Daniel started to feel queasy. "What did that bastard do?"

Rory pulled his knees to his chest. For such a tall guy he could take up very little space when he wanted to. Hugging his knees, he continued, "Surprised me in the bathroom. The door doesn't close all the way and the mirror broke last week. I didn't see him coming. He came at me from behind, rammed me against the sink and when I pushed back, he gripped my wrists and twisted my arms behind my back." He swallowed a couple of times as if he felt sick. "Harry is a small guy, I should've been able to overpower him, but when he pressed himself against my back, I… froze. I couldn't move, I couldn't even breathe…"

Daniel watched his brother with horror, listening to him almost gasp like a drowning man. Things like… this, harassment of any kind, let alone sexual, just didn't happen to people like them. It was all stuff found in books or on the telly… And Green did it only because Daniel provoked him, revealed him as the thieving scum he was. And because Green couldn't go after him personally, he turned against the best available target, knowing he would hit both the Slippery brothers he hated at once.

Swallowing bile, Daniel asked, "Did he… I mean, do you need to see… Should I call dad after all?" He couldn't say it aloud, he couldn't consider a thing like… that in context with his brother.

Rory shook his head quickly. "No, he didn't… He just sort of… leaned into me… to show me who the boss was. It was more of a… of a scare than anything, really."

"Did you report him?" Daniel asked seriously.

Rory shook his head, letting it fall forward.

"What?" Daniel asked incredulously. "Why the hell not? That creep deserves to rot in prison. Or they should at least fire him on the spot!" He couldn't believe that his brother who always stood up for everybody would let something like that slide.

Sighing wearily, Rory looked up. "And what should I tell them?" he asked quietly. "Yes, officer, this is the man who assaulted me. I know he's a head smaller than me and so thin a strong gust of wind could break him in two, but it was him." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Yes!" Daniel almost shouted, then he looked into the hall outside, to see if his raised voice caught any unwanted attention. When he confirmed that all was clear, he turned back to his brother. "Yes, Rory, because if it had been anybody else but you, you would be the first one talking them into going to the police. Tell me I'm wrong!"

Lowering his eyes again, Rory admitted after a moment, "I'm ashamed, Dan.“ And his voice broke a little at the end. "I should've done something, fought him, told him off when he started taunting me but I just froze. I couldn't move a muscle. I'm always careful around strangers in the shelter, but I didn't think someone like Green could…" He pressed one hand against his mouth. "Oh, God. I think I'm going to be sick.“

Daniel's eyes widened when Rory paled, turning slightly green, but Rory didn't lunge for the toilet, he just closed his eyes tightly and kept swallowing, so Daniel got up and leaned over the shard strewn floor towards the sink, to pour water into his own cup, a green plastic one. He then took Rory's free hand and pressed the cup into it.

"Here," he said, crouching and folding his bathrobe again to keep it away from the shards. When Rory opened his eyes and took a small sip, Daniel asked, "Better?“

Rory nodded and lifting the still mostly full cup to his face, he pressed it to his forehead as if to cool it off. "What am I going to do, Dan?" he asked softly, his voice a little desperate. "Harry's my boss, I'm going to see him every day at the shelter and he made it pretty clear that this wasn't a one time thing. I don't think… I can't go through that every day."

Daniel sighed. "Report him, Rory. Seriously. It might not be the first time he's tried something like that. And it probably won't be the last if someone doesn't stop him. Next time he does something, call the police, call someone from the charity!"

"Harry is the higher uppers golden boy, Dan," Rory said. "They won't believe anything I say. And the police… If I called them to the shelter, it would scare our clients off – homeless people aren't exactly law enforcement's friends – and they need the place, for some of them it's their last refuge. If they see police officers crawling around, they will run and we have enough problems trying to get them to come to us as it is."

"You need to do something, Rory!" Daniel insisted. If it were someone else, he would suggest one in the teeth but his brother frowned on violence - which Daniel found quite funny, considering the way they used to torment their youngest brother, Edwin, when they were younger.

"I know. I know that!" Rory replied, frustrated. "Well, I could always resign. Wouldn't be the first job I've lost." He sighed.

Daniel looked at his brother as if he'd lost his mind. Sometimes, he couldn't believe they were actually related. Where Daniel would be kicking and screaming and making a scene, Rory was willing to just keep his head down and take it. Rory, who argued for everything and everybody… but himself.

Seeing his brother's look, Rory sighed again. "You're right, that would dumb."

"Yeah, it sure would!" Daniel responded, irritated now.

"I'll… I'll think of… something. I have tomorrow off, I'll come up with… something. For certain," Rory said, but he didn't sound certain. Actually, he sounded anything but certain. Daniel had never seen his self-confident, steadfast brother like this. Rory took a deep breath and looked at Daniel imploringly. "I'll deal with it. I don't know how yet, but I will, I always do, just… Don't say anything to Paul and Estelle. They would freak."

That was an understatement. Mum would possibly beat Harry Green to a pulp with dad kibitzing from the sidelines. Daniel and Edwin had accepted a long time ago that their parents had a soft spot for their eldest brother. It was hard to take offense when Rory so obviously didn't abuse this privilege, even when his siblings would have absolutely no qualms in doing so personally.

"Contrary to popular opinion, I'm not stupid, you know?" Daniel said a little dryly. Then he became serious again. "But be careful, okay? I mean it, Rory. Older you might be, but it doesn't mean I don't worry."

Especially since he felt he was, at least partially, at fault here. He shouldn't have taunted Green in front of everybody. Not when Rory still had to work with the man, at least for the moment. But he was so pissed that Rory didn't trust him! And now they had this mess.

Looking down at his brother, Daniel felt an unquenchable need to fix it, this whole situation. Rory had always been… Rory, as Edwin tended to say so eloquently. He was everybody's shoulder to lean on, unshakable. And seeing him so upset felt wrong. Just wrong. It made Daniel queasy and it turned his world upside down.

Rory's lips quirked up. "Did mum's sensitivity talks rub off on you after all?" he joked lightly because everybody knew how allergic Daniel was to… feelings.

Daniel snorted. "Yeah, right." He got up. "You need help cleaning up this mess?"

Rory shook his head, getting up as well, though slower, obviously still feeling shaken and unbalanced. "No, I'll handle it," he assured his brother, pulling down the sleeves of his pajama top, hiding the bruises self-consciously.

"Good," Daniel said brusquely, tying the belt of his bathrobe. "I need to make a phone call, but then I really have to go, my bladder's not what it used to be! Don't be here by then." With that he turned to go.

"Dan?" Rory called after him softly and when Daniel turned back expectantly, he said, "Thanks."

Daniel waved his hand. "You know me, Mr Sensitivity!" he said archly and Rory laughed.

Entering his bedroom, Daniel closed the door behind him and pulled the mobile phone out of the pocket of his jacket that he had thrown over his desk chair earlier that evening. Dialing a number, he walked to the window and leaned against the frame.

"Yeah, boss? Daniel Slippery. Yes, yes, I know it's quite late. But I have a question. Yes, work-related," Daniel assured him, rolling his eyes. "Did you already send my final report to the homeless shelter? Yes, the presentation I had yesterday. No? Great. No, no, don't worry, no problems. I just thought I would delivery it personally tomorrow. I think I need to make some things clear to Mr Green…"

The End


End file.
